


you make me live now honey

by torigates



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-03
Updated: 2012-06-03
Packaged: 2017-11-06 18:52:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/422025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wally came home one night with a dog. That was Artemis' life now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you make me live now honey

Like most things in her life, Artemis felt comfortable blaming it on Wally. It might not have been fair of her (oh, who was she kidding, it was _totally_ fair of her, considering most of the scrapes they had gotten into over the years were entirely, or at least mostly his fault), but whenever things went wrong it was her default setting to blame Wally. 

(Wally, bless him, took the blame without complaint. It was what made him the best boyfriend.)

So yes. It was all Wally’s fault. That was her story and she was sticking to it. 

 

-

 

“Babe?”

Artemis heard Wally let himself into their apartment. (He always made it a habit of immediately introducing himself whenever he got home, after the surprise party debacle of 2012. All parties agreed it was best not spoken of, but all parties _equally_ agreed that Wally should have known better.) 

“In here,” Artemis called. She was sitting at the kitchen table, her Pre-WWII American Lit textbook open in front of her, papers spread everywhere. The midterm was set for the following day, and she wanted to go over her notes a few more times before she called it a night. 

Wally poked his head into the room, and she smiled up at him. “Hey,” she said. 

“Hey.” He grinned at her, and Artemis felt a familiar flutter. She was loathe to admit it, but that smile never got old, and it never stopped doing funny things to her insides. “You love me, right?” he asked, and she felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. “We’re both pretty much agreed on the fact that you love me. There’s no take backs now. You’re in too deep.” 

She stifled the urge to groan, and put her head down on the table, for a short moment. Her notes crinkled underneath her, and when she opened her eyes, she could barely make out her own handwriting. “What did you do?” her voice was muffled. 

“Nothing!” Wally said. “Well, no, something,” he conceded. “But really, nothing, I didn’t do anything.” 

She turned her face so she could see him, her notes sticking to the side of her face. “Out with it,” she said. “It’s better if you tell me all at once. Did you call Batman again? You know Nightwing will come down here and kick your ass.” 

“No, no, nothing like that,” he assured her, and stepped all the way into the room. Her gaze travelled down from his face to his hand, which was clutching a leash, down to, he tugged a bit and a bow-legged pit bull followed him into the room. The dog promptly sat at Wally’s feet and began licking itself. 

Artemis stared. Then she stared some more. 

“Wally,” she said, fighting to keep her voice level. “What’s that?” 

“It’s... a dog,” he said helpfully. 

She sighed and stood, going over to stand next to him. She stared at him for a long moment, and silently, had to give him props for having the balls not to blanche under her gaze. Artemis had seen some of the world’s worst super villains flinch under her stare. 

“I can see that it’s a dog,” she said. “What is it doing here?” 

Wally reached up and scratched the back of his neck. It was a stalling tactic, one he resorted to whenever he was feeling especially nervous, or self conscious. “Well,” he said. “You know how I was meeting Conner?” he asked. 

Artemis groaned, and shook her head. Wally looked at her with pleading eyes, and Artemis crouched down to look at the dog that looked perfectly content on their kitchen floor. She scratched a little behind the dog’s ears, and it woofed quietly. A quick peek revealed the dog to be a girl, and there was no denying she was a cute one. 

“You know how Conner is,” Wally continued above her head. “It’s like he’s a freaking Disney princess, the woodland creatures just flock to him. There’s no explaining it.” There was a beat. “Please don’t tell Conner I compared him to a princess.” 

Artemis looked up, and couldn’t help smiling at the slightly terrified expression on his face. “How does meeting up with Conner for a debrief result in you bringing home a dog, exactly?” 

Wally waived his hands around like that was supposed to mean something to her. In doing so, he jerked on the chain, and the dog lifted her head. Artemis tugged the leash out of his hand so his flailing wouldn’t upset their new friend. 

“I don’t know,” he said eventually. “Conner was going on and on about Wolf and Beast Boy, and something about La’gaan, and to be honest I stopped listening a little.” He looked sheepish, and Artemis felt a sharp flash of nostalgia in her gut. She was overwhelmingly reminded of the many, many (many, many) times she had to force Wally to pay attention at a mission debrief. Even though she could say that she was perfectly happy with their life, she missed it sometimes. It snuck up on her.

“So you brought her home?” Artemis asked, shaking herself out of her reverie. She continued to pet the dog, who had rolled over exposing her belly, during Wally’s explanation. 

“Yes?” Wally asked. “In my defense,” he said. “It made sense when Conner was explaining it. At least I think it did.” 

Artemis sighed. “Does she have a name?” 

Wally shrugged, before crouching down next to her. “Knowing Supey it’s probably ‘Dog.’”

The two of them sat in silence for a long moment, petting the dog. Their dog, Artemis supposed, staring down helplessly at the adorable face. She had a brief moment where she thought, ‘No wonder Conner always falls for these guys,’ before she reined herself in. 

She poked Wally in the chest. “I’m not going to be the one to walk her,” she said. “Or pick up shit.”

Wally nodded solemnly, and wisely did not correct her. She sighed and stroked the dog’s soft fur for another long moment. 

“We’ll go get some food in the morning,” she said. And a bed, and probably some chew toys, and maybe some treats. They’d have to train her, she thought, dogs were so much _work_ , and they didn’t really have the time for it. Not really. 

She watched as Wally played with their dog, and felt a surge of love and fondness overcome her. Goddammit, she thought. They were really going to have to think of a name for her.


End file.
